Competitive Edgy

Picking A Library Kept The Design Pot Boiling

Even architecturally jaded Chicagoans were stirred to excitement by the 1988 downtown library competition. It was easily the city`s most important design event of the year.

None of the five competing library schemes raised hope for a truly great new work of architecture, but most of the entries were solidly impressive and even spectacular in certain respects. Thousands of Chicagoans visited the Cultural Center to see elaborate models and drawings calculated to impress the 11-member jury.

While the number of competition entries was small, their range of stylistic approaches was broad, in keeping with the architectural pluralism found in every part of America.

A Neo-Classical library design was created by the winning firm of Hammond Beeby & Babka. It reflected chief designer Thomas Beeby`s inclination toward Classicism, which has become a focal point of the international Postmodern movement.

There were a few sour aspects to the competition.

The site of the new main library is the area bounded by Congress Parkway, State and Van Buren streets and Plymouth Court. City officials gave competing architects the option of designing the library so that it would also straddle the CTA elevated tracks and extend onto the block north of Van Buren.

This foolish ambiguity, in effect, created two totally different architectural problems (two of the losing architecture firms chose to design for the larger site). Later, the vagueness also left city planners and library officials squabbling over who had the right to decide what would be built on the left-over land north of the tracks.

Equally disturbing was the fact that competition jurors failed to make public any detailed statement about why they selected the Beeby scheme and rejected the other four. At best, this was a disservice to taxpayers, who had been officially encouraged to ``vote`` for their favorite-not to mention picking up the $140 million construction tab.

Still, by year`s end there was at least reason to cheer the fact that excavation and caisson work had begun on the Beeby-designed building. And with the main library shifted to interim quarters at 400 N. Franklin St., the way was clear for demolition of the Mandel Building at 425 N. Michigan Ave., which served as a ``temporary`` library for 13 years.

Removal of the Mandel Building, in turn, will enable a less obstructed view of the NBC Building, now nearing completion just behind it. The NBC structure, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, has already drawn extraordinary public attention for its crisp recollection of the 1930s Art Moderne style.

Of the major new Chicago buildings that opened at least partially in 1988, none generated more publicity than the multi-use 900 N. Michigan Ave. complex designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox. That was much more a retailing event than an esthetic triumph, however.

About a dozen skyscrapers totaling millions of square feet are under construction in downtown Chicago and scheduled to be completed in 1989 and the early 1990s. Their architectural diversity is probably the greatest in the city`s history, although that is no guarantee of their collective merit.

The same sort of pluralism-but not in the same volume-prevails in other big cities in America and abroad. Because so much is going on, it is harder than ever to attract attention simply by being innovative, or even outrageous. Yet Philip Johnson demonstrated that the trick is still possible when last June he curated a ``Deconstructivist Architecture`` exhibition at New York`s Museum of Modern Art.

As the dean of American architecture and the world`s oldest (82) enfant terrible, Johnson had little trouble stirring up a national controversy with his show.

Deconstructivism is an approach to design that bends, skews, fractures and distorts orthodox geometric shapes in a rebellious gesture against the purity of form. Some architects and critics call it liberating while others view it as bunk.

In any case, it is clear that Deconstructivism is not going to quickly fade away when it is associated with such formidable designers as Frank Gehry, Peter Eisenman and Rem Koolhaas-all featured by Johnson in his exhibition.

Just a few weeks ago, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley unveiled a project to build a $45 million,Deconstructivist-inspired construction of whackily twisted steel that is to straddle the Hollywood Freeway and celebrate Los Angeles` ethnic diversity. It was designed by New York architects Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture.

Anyone seeking surcease from the more anarchic aspects of today`s architecture would have a hard time finding a place that has escaped its effects. Still, there is some consolation in knowing that others feel the same way.

The best-known architecture critic in the world today is Prince Charles of England. Last October, he set off a major ruckus when he wrote and narrated a 75-minute TV documentary attacking the ``terrible damage`` done to his country by contemporary architecture.

The prince dislikes Modernism, Brutalism and other isms that have afflicted British cityscapes since the Luftwaffe left them in rubble. Indeed, there are times when there doesn`t seem to be an extant style that fits his taste. But that`s not true, as you may be aware if you have been following the royal criticisms carefully. The prince clearly likes Classicism.

It follows that the prince would probably love Thomas Beeby`s new downtown library, and perhaps we should invite him over for opening day. By that time, the competition jury might even be willing to tell him why they chose Beeby`s design.